Interserve - the next Carillion?



I (obviously) am terribly naive about how businesses work. Why would anyone accept waiting four months for payment?

The norm I would say now is 60, 30 if you’re lucky.
If a big firm senses your desperate they’ll push for whatever.
Then firms are forced to pay their lads late, hotels late, materials late or whatever and go pop.
Or the big boy spunks money on bonuses etc then think shit we owe xxx off before xmas etc.
Mental really.
Folk thing starting a firm is just about getting business in, its not, its getting paid for the fecker n fighting people off till you do.

Established customer client relationship, no payment issues over many years and we do about 500m revenue with them annually

Its still barmy when you think though mate. They could be in good health when a job starts n fecked 4 month later when cash is owed.
 
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The norm I would say now is 60, 30 if you’re lucky.
If a big firm senses your desperate they’ll push for whatever.
Then firms are forced to pay their lads late, hotels late, materials late or whatever and go pop.
Or the big boy spunks money on bonuses etc then think shit we owe xxx off before xmas etc.
Mental really.
Folk thing starting a firm is just about getting business in, its not, its getting paid for the fecker n fighting people off till you do.



Its still barmy when you think though mate. They could be in good health when a job starts n fecked 4 month later when cash is owed.

Oh aye, crackers tbf

Depends on the type of business you're in as well mind
 
Well if they go the journey the government could use it as a tool to renew all the PFI contracts since Carilion and Interserve were 2 of the big players
 
just seen what the plan was on bbc item. i heard they were giving their lenders shares to reduce the debt but didnt know that the existing shareholders would have been diluted to 5% of the company. no wonder they voted against it.
 
Just got a alert at work that their deal didnt get the go ahead. Priced a lot of work for the recently too

The lenders are going to buy the company's assets and debt (essentially buying their own debt) in a pre-pack admin.

It'll continue to run as a going concern, just with a new owner as of, probably, tomorrow.

just seen what the plan was on bbc item. i heard they were giving their lenders shares to reduce the debt but didnt know that the existing shareholders would have been diluted to 5% of the company. no wonder they voted against it.

Now they have 0%, shareholders have essentially cut off their noses to spite their face.
 
The norm I would say now is 60, 30 if you’re lucky.
If a big firm senses your desperate they’ll push for whatever.
Then firms are forced to pay their lads late, hotels late, materials late or whatever and go pop.
Or the big boy spunks money on bonuses etc then think shit we owe xxx off before xmas etc.
Mental really.
Folk thing starting a firm is just about getting business in, its not, its getting paid for the fecker n fighting people off till you do.

Took me almost 8 months to get £600 off Tesco about 8 yr ago! The bigger the business the worse the payer un my eyes. Fooka’s

Its still barmy when you think though mate. They could be in good health when a job starts n fecked 4 month later when cash is owed.

Took me almost 8 months to get £600 off Tesco about 8 yr ago! The bigger the business the worse the payer in my eyes. Fooka’s
 
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As an outsider, these private sector conglomerates delivering services to the public sector just seem too large and overblown. Interserve are responsible for everything from probation to construction, cleaning, catering etc...
Is this the public sector being lazy by wanting all their services with a single provider, rather than parcelling services up into smaller packages and going to operators who specialise? The latter would give better service and imho value for money, harder to manage for the public sector bods though
 
As an outsider, these private sector conglomerates delivering services to the public sector just seem too large and overblown. Interserve are responsible for everything from probation to construction, cleaning, catering etc...
Is this the public sector being lazy by wanting all their services with a single provider, rather than parcelling services up into smaller packages and going to operators who specialise? The latter would give better service and imho value for money, harder to manage for the public sector bods though

To some extent yes, but government tries to seek SMEs as well.

Interserves problems stem from incredibly poor moves by the previous CEO into the energy from waste sector, that’s what’s ultimately scuppered the company.

The 2 largest shareholders have, but they are US hedge funds so probably win both ways - the smaller shareholders, employees for example are the ones who are really fucked on this

True, lots of smaller investors have got nothing. However it seems lots of those smaller investors didn’t bother to vote either.
 
You forget the private IT companies bidding for Govt contracts for DWP, HMRC & NHS

Worked for quite a few of the private companies on Govt contracts for ALL of the above industries for 20 years.

The govt get ripped off right, left & centre on cost, delivery dates, what is actually produced etc etc.

The main reason IMO was that the Govt departments awarding the contracts (and high placed individuals in particular) had no business acumen. They had been nowhere & done nothing except for being civil servants. Their due diligence is no more lip-service in most cases

We rang ring around them on cost, deliverables, timescales .

I don't work for them now but it seems nothing has changed.

Gravy train

same goes for council contracts. the heads don't have a scooby but rely lower down the food chain to bring to their attention. If somebody wants to supply a cheaper version of something as opposed to what is in the tender, the lower food chain will be asked. they will then go higher food chain and a note entered on file that request approved but no details of who approved and on what basis.

this was a good few years ago so I hope things have been tightened up now
 
How do these companies even come to be providing services to the state? They all seem to be experts in everything.

Healthcare, construction, admin, school dinners

Do they just say they’ll do it cheap as owt and do a shit job?
Quite a few take on the NHS staff at the pointy end to do the day to day running.
 
The lenders are going to buy the company's assets and debt (essentially buying their own debt) in a pre-pack admin.

It'll continue to run as a going concern, just with a new owner as of, probably, tomorrow.



Now they have 0%, shareholders have essentially cut off their noses to spite their face.
The biggest shareholder is planning on buying some parts of the business from the administrator though so they won’t lose.
 
Kier will be next....I would have said Amey but I think the Spanish owners will have flogged them off before the axe falls.
 

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